The very first thing the interviewer asks you is, “tell me about yourself or introduce yourself”. To state rationally, this question can be the easiest to answer. Who would know you better than you yourself? And what’s the big deal about telling who you are?
No, it’s no big deal telling about you. However, answering this question in an interview can be quite stressful. Not because you don’t know about yourself but because you might get confused about what things to tell.
Answering this question in an interview needs effort and preparation because here, you need to be formal. Professional.
This interview question might make you feel nervous because you cannot go on telling the interviewer all that you would otherwise tell an acquaintance.
You cannot bring up your personal life and opinions, likes, and dislikes. You need to stick to a professional tone and format while answering this question. And to keep it short, specific, and concise.
To help you out with crafting an answer to this question, here’s a quick guide to what the interviewer expects to know about you when he/she asks you this question.
"Tell Me Something About Yourself” Guide:
While "Tell Me About Yourself” marks the very beginning of an interview, it becomes difficult for you to understand what the interviewer exactly wants to know.
This question might be asked in different ways such as: "Tell Me Something about Yourself that’s not on your resume," "Walk me through your resume," or "Describe yourself". Let us decode this question.
A recruiter takes only a few minutes to assess your resume and might not go through every detail. And hence, the interviewer is interested in knowing more about your skills and experiences.
He or she looks forward to you as a potential candidate. He or she is eager to listen to what skills you possess and if you are a good fit for the concerned job position.
Through this question, you get a chance to present yourself. You can include in your answer such unique points that you might not have included in your resume.
You can elaborate your answer on the basis of the following points:
Show your skills and abilities with examples
Focus on details of outcomes that you got when you used your expertise
Mention your previous job responsibilities
Mention your achievements in your previous job
Avoid a detailed explanation of your resume
Avoid sharing details of your personal life
Highlight your personality
Mention your hobbies, interests, and community involvement in brief
Connect your skills to the job description
Share relevant experiences
How to Get Started: Brainstorming the Tell Me About Yourself Interview Question
1. What qualities make you a great fit for this position?
Think of skills that are related to the job position and what qualities you possess that can make you stand out from the crowd.
These qualities can either be your technical skills or soft skills, experience, or specialization. Evaluate the job position, note down the essential skills, and highlight them in your answer.
2. Why are you interested in the role?
Think about why you would like to work in this position. What things about the job excite you and how you can be a perfect fit for this role?
Consider your career goals and if this job position contributes to your career growth. Mention these points in your answer.
3. Why are you interested in the company or the industry?
Research the company well. Find out its vision and mission.
Look for the core values and work culture of the company.
See what ethics and morals the company values. And then check if your goals align with those of the organization.
Think, why would you like to work here? What service or product of the company do you like the most? How can you contribute to the company’s overall growth and then frame your answer?
Here are a few tips to follow while you sit down to write the answer to this question:
1. Mention the previous experiences related to the position:
Review the job position carefully. Make a list of the required skills. See if you possess those skills.
Mention your experiences and achievements based on those skills from your previous job. This way, the interviewer will know what skills you possess and how effectively you can use them to tactfully handle difficult situations.
If you are a fresher, tell an experience related to your project work or assignment, or internship. Make use of the STAR response technique to write your answer. Read more about the STAR interview response technique here.
2. Consider how your current job relates to the new job role:
Explain how your current or previous job duties are related to the new job role. Show the interviewer how you will transfer the skills into the new job position.
You can show your ability to learn new things which can help you improve the quality of work.
3. Focus on strengths and abilities:
When you craft an example of a story, focus on mentioning your strengths and abilities that will add weight to your answer.
Show the interviewer that you possess strengths that will help you handle any difficult situations.
4. Highlight your personality:
The interviewer is interested in knowing your overall personality from your answer.
So, highlight our personality traits. Briefly add your hobbies and interests, social activities, extracurricular activities, and achievements.
Make sure that you maintain professionalism and stick to the key points of the answer.
5. Be positive:
An interviewer is always in search of an optimistic person. So, be positive. Be you. Avoid stating negative points or bad experiences.
Be real. Do not fake anything since the recruiter might catch your lie immediately.
Keep a check on your body language. It speaks a lot about you. Keep a positive, genuine approach.
Here is a sample answer to the question, tell me about yourself:
Good morning Sir/Madam,
First of all, I would like to thank you, for giving me an opportunity to introduce myself.
I am Ajinkya, I belong from Mumbai. I graduated with a degree in Information Technology from Mumbai University with a 7.56 CGPA. My hobbies are playing cricket and spending time with my friends.
My strengths are, I am a good learner and possess leadership skills, adaptable to any kind of environment, a team player, and love to help people. My weakness is that I push myself until I finish my work within the deadline.
My Short term goal is to get a job where I can use my skills and explore new ones. My ultimate goal is to work efficiently and become more responsible and improve the skills that will help me grow my career.
Thank you for considering my profile and giving me the opportunity to introduce myself.
Now that you know how to construct an impressive answer to this question, you can start preparing a self-introduction.
Since this question is asked at the beginning of an interview you need to remember that this could be your first impression of the interviewer. You need to make sure that you create a good first impression.
Be prepared for this question and show the interviewer what skills and abilities you possess. Convince the recruiter that you are a perfect fit for the job and that you can add great value to his/her organization.
Supplement your answer with relevant examples and experience and you are all set to get your dream job.
Have you started writing your formal introduction yet? Let us know in the comments.
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